Residents of Dutch Town Assault Burgomaster Attempting to Arrest Jew

September 2, 1942

STOCKHOLM (Sep. 1)

The citizens of the small town of Oestzaan, in northern Holland, have been reprimanded by the German occupation authorities for assaulting the collaborationist burgomaster of the town when he attempted to arrest a Jew who was not wearing a yellow star-of-David badge upon his coat, the Nazi press arriving here today from Amsterdam reveals.

The official Nazi account of the incident states that the burgomaster was obliged to “act violently” because of the Jew’s resistance. Whereupon, the German paper writes, the crowd that had gathered behaved in “an undisciplined manner.” Not only did they refuse to help the burgomaster escort the Jew to the police station or call the police, but one person on a bicycle even tried to run down the burgomaster, while another attempted to trip him.